November 23

The blood of sprinkling. - Hebrews 12:24.

IT is not enough that the Saviour’s blood should be shed; it must be applied: and it is in reference to this that it is called “the blood of sprinkling.” “The law was the shadow of good things to come, but the body was Christ.” We must therefore observe the correspondence between the type and the reality. We may refer to a few of those instances in which the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled after it was shed.

We read that “by faith Moses kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them.” On the day of atonement, to which there is such frequent reference in this epistle, the high-priest was to go into the holy place with the blood of the sacrifice in a basin, and there sprinkle it seven times to make an atonement for the sins of the people. When Moses descended from the Mount Horeb, having received the law from God, “he wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning and builded an altar under the hill,” that was to represent God, “and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel;” these were to represent the people. “And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people. And they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning these words.”

Thus we find both parties were consecrated. God was thus under an obligation to bless, and they were under an obligation to obey. The one was thus engaged to provide, and the other to serve, as it was a mutual contract. In the consecration of the priests, a ram was always offered; and the blood was “sprinkled on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot;” thus teaching us that God required an entire consecration to his glory from head to foot. In the cleansing of the leper, there were two birds to be taken alive and cleaned. One of these birds was to be killed, and the blood was to be sprinkled seven times upon him that was to be cleansed of his leprosy. The other bird was to be let loose in the open field, to show that the man was now at liberty, and no longer forbidden to approach the camp or the tabernacle.

Thus in the Scriptures blood was used to atone, to ratify, to consecrate, to purify, and to heal; and in all these cases the effect arises from the application of the blood after it was shed. Ah! here alone is the blood which cleanses from the leprosy of sin, the blood that consecrates us to a holy priesthood, to the service of God; the blood of the everlasting covenant, the blood that makes reconciliation for the sins of the people, the blood by which we receive the atonement, and the blood by which we escape the stroke of the destroying angel.